Allen not worried about job security, says Raiders ‘closer” this season

ALAMEDA – Raiders coach Dennis Allen said Monday that his team this season is “closer” to being a playoff-caliber team than it was last season and that he isn’t concerned about his job security.
“Listen, that’s not what my job is,” Allen said, when asked if he has received assurance from owner Mark Davis that he’ll be retained beyond this season. “My job is to try to get this team better, get this team ready to play against the Kansas City Chiefs.
“I’m not going to talk about speculation or anything like that. I’m going to worry about winning a football game this week.”
The Raiders were 3-10 at this point last season. They finished 4-12 on the heels of an 8-8 campaign in 2011, the season before Allen and general manager Reggie McKenzie arrived.
The Raiders are 4-9, with three games remaining against divisional foes – Denver Broncos (11-2), Kansas City (10-3) and San Diego Chargers (6-7).
“We’re a lot closer,” Allen said. “Obviously the record doesn’t say so. We all recognize that, at the end of the day, this is a production business. We understand that you are what your record says you are.
“But I also know there’s a lot of areas where this football team has improved. We’ve got to continue to improve in those areas and other areas so that we’re able to win football games and not come away and be disappointed.”
Allen said he and McKenzie are in lock-step with their long-term outlook for their complete rebuild of a franchise that last finished with a winning record and qualified for the playoffs in 2002.
“Reggie and I have been on the same page in everything that we’ve done,” Allen said. “We understand what the vision is, we have a plan for what we’re trying to get accomplished and we haven’t varied from that, and we won’t waver on that.”
Safety Charles Woodson called the Raiders loss to the New York Jets on Sunday “embarrassing” and reflected badly on players and coaches. The Raiders were in all but two of their first 12 games, but they got outplayed by the lowly Jets in a 37-27 defeat.
Allen said he hasn’t spoken with McKenzie or Davis since the Jets game ended.
Davis vented about the Raiders poor play after the 10th game last season, saying he wanted to see progress. He hasn’t weighed in on his team’s play this season at all to date.

But right more often than wrong. McGloin is cool for awhile, a short-term answer like Derek Anderson or Mark Sanchez or something like that.

Everntually the rubber will meet the road and he is just not talented enough to win without a Ravens/Jets type defense, of which we are miles away from.

aig-raiders

Franchise QBs are way overrated imho. You can chase it and most of the time flame out with 5 wasted yrs. Dan Marino, Warren Moon and Jim Kelly were prolific passers yet never won a SB. Guys like Jeff Hosstettler and Trent Dilfer came off the bench and won a SB. Peyton Manning and Tom Brady won exactly one ring together since putting up fantastic passing numbers. Brady won all 3 rings in seasons passing under 4k yds and zero rings in seasons over 4k yds. Give me a D and run game with a game manager all day over the over hyped Franchise QB.

docta1232

Ahhh. Nice, cool refreshing sanity/rationalism. Rare from what I see on this board. (kinda new here) Let me apologize once again for assuming that you were saying something other than what you were.

Alex7

Raider fan truths:

1) Rookies don’t improve. What you see in half a season is what they’ll always be. If they don’t even play due to injury, that’s it, they’ll never play or be any good.

2) Every NFL team, no matter what happens to their roster, should improve the next season. Don’t argue that it’s mathematically impossible. We should improve no matter what. No excuses. Every team improves every year.

3) Good coaches don’t lose to start their careers. Ignore the fact that none of Bill Walsh, Gruden, Schottenheimer, Rivera, Shanahan, and Fisher had winning records after 2 years. It doesn’t matter! If you don’t win, regardless of your talent, you suck!

as usual, if you’re with the masses, you’re probably in the wrong.

Davy Jones

Apparently there are those who feel we can’t grade RM on his progress so far. But consider this: 1. If he were going to get an A, we’d have seen more impact from this years draft- we’ve seen it from other teams 2. If he were going to get a B, don’t you think the team would win AT LEAST one more game than last year?

1960AutumnWind

Not to rain on your parade but MM has better comprehensive QB stats than Flacco. Something about the team around him might be a factor I think.

Why is the cutoff Super Bowl wins? I would be happy as hell with a Tom Brady 4,500 yard year and Conference Championship appearance or Super Bowl loss.
We are miles away from even being competitive to be scoffing at Super Bowl losses.

Alex7

so you’re comparing a purge where you still have Joe Flacco, Terrell Suggs, Haloti Ngata, Dumerville, and Oher to our situation.

Beautiful.

c2e

respectfully disagree. too early to make that determination.

plunkhead

4) its always greener on the other side

Howard Benner

The game was played in NE. . .I think the refs were intimidated by Belichick & Brady & made the erroneous call. . .the contact was no different or egregious than what has been established as the league wide standard. . .

I wouldn’t have called PI.
But if that was Streater running down the sideline against Dallas in the 4th quarter and there was no flag thrown….you telling me you would have thought it was the “correct call”?
It was illegal contact no doubt. He grabbed him by the shoulder pads at the 7 yard line.

Mathematically impossible? Preposterous. Nothing but hindsight. If you asked any member of the Raiders brass at the beginning of the season, they’d have claimed they improved the team and listed the players they brought in. Reggie would’ve laughed at you if you told him it was mathematically impossible to improve this team before the season. He might agree with you NOW, LOL.

rudegruden

You forgot 8-21 is sh*tty. It doesn’t matter how you want to sugarcoat it.

Alex7

without a single off-season where he had decent $ to spend? Without a single full draft not modified by previous regime’s mistakes?

That seems fair.

Alex7

nice avoidance =)

Davy Jones

That is why I think he avoids the axe, yes. But the pressure is on to win next year. 8-8 won’t cut it.

1960AutumnWind

My guess is he does not try QB with 1st round pick. What are you going to say then? I know the cap, Al Davis and on and on.

Alex7

thanks for proving my point. Every team should always improve, no matter what. Mathematically impossible, but expected here.

tuckrulefool

Very human-nature of you!

BTW I’ll prematurely Fact-Speak(tm) for the hell of it. *If given the chance* I think McGloin is our (unquestioned) starter for the next 3 years. 3/2 TD-INT ratio with overall winning record. Good to very good (Hostetler but not peak Gannon). Definitely starting QB material not back up. Lets revisit this post in 2 yrs. (lol)

The final grade is certainly not out. But the student who is flubbing the homework assignments and gets a D/C on the midterm, rarely aces the final.
It happens sometimes, most often they continue on as they were doing previously.

Alex7

knucklehead, did you read? EVERY TEAM improving is mathematically impossible. So it posits that for some reason, some teams will not improve. A $40 million roster purge and no full drafts might be that reason.

The expectations were lessened.
He has still not met those limited expectations.

aig-raiders

I cut off at the SB is because a lot of peeps on here have been talking about how you need a franchise QB to win the SB. I think that is folly. I think that is one of the biggest reasons why teams suck for so long. The Raiders won our SBs with non-franchise QB. Snake was taken in the 2nd round and Plunkett was a cast off by the Pats. As a matter of fact Al traded for a Franchise QB Pastorini and that didnt work out either. We’ve been chasing a franchise QB and that is why we suck. Get off the Franchise QB wagon. Get a game manager and go after the trenches is how I’d do it.

Alex7

absolutely, next year it’s ALL on them, and Mark knows this. That’s why he gave them 4-year contracts.

Alex7

I would think not losing MORE games after a $40 million roster purge and huge drop off at QB would meet the expectations.

Charlie

New Post.

1960AutumnWind

5) It is all AD’s fault at least until the 22nd century.
6) TP is the answer even if you do not know what the question is.

rudegruden

Good assessment. I would have had it 7, 8+, 6, 5-

tuckrulefool

Roll with it, JFB is just prematurely Fact-Speaking(tm)! 😉

Alex7

Last year, when asked about the lack of wins, Mark Davis was quoted as saying something to the effect of “I gave them 4-year contracts for a reason.” He knew the effect all the out-of-whack contracts and 1st rounders traded for Seymour and Palmer would have.

Maybe he still understands that, maybe he doesn’t.

Regardless of who coaches here, the QB position is what matters. Lovie and Gruden had ugly losing seasons with ugly QBs.

rudegruden

We are 8-21 and he hasn’t either A). drafted a potential pro bowler or B). picked up a potential pro bowler. He has picked up some ok guys who might start in the long term and swung a missed bad on some pickups.

Progress Report D, C- being generous

Alex7

the correct grade would be an I for incomplete. Give the guy one normal off-season. Just one =)

Flacco is bored with October football. He is turning it on now as he has done every year.

rudegruden

They improved from their baseline by year 2. We are still 4 games behind our baseline. Big difference.

Davy Jones

Okay internet tough guy, quit offering us smoke and mirrors about POTENTIAL improvement, and show us tangible improvement to encourage us that there might be more. He’s still had draft picks, he’s still brought in FAs. $40 million roster purge and no full drafts justify limited improvement, but not NO improvement.